My Family Album

Share some of your favourite images and win £75 to spend on photo restoration. This month’s reader is Lynn Hilditch from Cirencester, who has been researching her tree in the UK and overseas for 20 years

This month’s reader is Lynn Hilditch from Cirencester

A grand wedding

This photo was taken at the wedding of my grandparents, Thomas Percival Woods (born in Leeds in 1890) and Alice Kraeutler, on 17 December 1915 at St Mary’s Church, Chefoo (now Yantai) in eastern China. The snow on the ground and the fur coatsthat the guests are wearing indicate a cold winter.

Two sisters

My great grandmother Madeleine Satovsky and Marie-Anna Pauline, 1888.

Studio shot

Here is my great great grandmother Marie Desiree Satovsky in 1862, aged 20.

A complicated history

Madeleine and Albert’s daughters Ninette and Lulu with their older half-sister Alice, who was apparently fathered by Albert’s late brother.

My great grandparents

Madeleine (née Satovsky) and Albert Kraeutler, c1908.

Rodolphe

Rodolphe Satovsky, my great great grandfather, was born in 1832 in Moscow.

Alice and Diana

Here is my mother Diana as a baby with her mother Alice Woods in Hong Kong, 1918.

A vital certificate

Albert was born in Moscow to parents from Alsace. He formally accepted Madeleine and Alice as French nationals when he married.

The Kraeutler clan

Here are Madeleine, Albert and family in Shanghai in 1916; he was an accountant for the Russo-Chinese Bank. They returned to France after the Russian Revolution left him with roubles that were worth nothing.

Enjoying a cup of tea

Madeleine and her daughter Alice look on while (from left) Ninette, Diana (my mother) and Lulu play with a doll in Shanghai, 1919.

A poignant photo

great Here are Marie Desiree and Rodolphe Satovsky with my Mariegrandmother Madeleine holding Alice. Marie holds Alfred, Anna Pauline’s son; sadly Marie-Anna died soon after childbirth.